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The Wedding I Planned Was For Him And A Different Bride
Novelix
Completed
"My fiancé, Ethan Carter, had a younger sister named Lily Carter, who was born with an intellectual disability. Lily was usually quiet and kept her distance from strangers, yet she was deeply attached to me. I was the only person she willingly spoke to and the only one with whom she shared the fruit candies she secretly saved. Every night before bed, she insisted on calling me. She would not close her eyes until I finished telling her a bedtime story. Even when she was sick, she refused to take her medicine unless I handed it to her myself. The night before our wedding, Lily suddenly developed a high fever and was rushed to a private hospital in the city. The moment I heard, I went straight there to take care of her. Ethan contacted me soon afterward and said we would have to postpone the wedding. But the next morning, Lily woke up and looked at me innocently. “My brother is getting married today. Mom and Dad are already there.” “Why didn’t you go?” I had not told her the wedding had been postponed, so I teased her. “Because Lily is sick, and I need to stay here and look after you.” She did not understand that I was joking. She thought I was upset. “It’s okay, Natalie.” “My brother said I can’t go to the wedding, but I can watch it on the tablet.” She picked up the tablet beside her bed and opened a wedding broadcast link in the family group chat. The video loaded within seconds. The groom standing at the front of the ceremony was Ethan. But the bride beside him was Maya Harrington."
Chapters (3)
第1章
My fiancé, Ethan Carter, had a younger sister named Lily Carter, who was born with an intellectual disability.
Lily was usually quiet and kept her distance from strangers, yet she was deeply attached to me.
I was the only person she willingly spoke to and the only one with whom she shared the fruit candies she secretly saved.
Every night before bed, she insisted on calling me.
She would not close her eyes until I finished telling her a bedtime story.
Even when she was sick, she refused to take her medicine unless I handed it to her myself.
The night before our wedding, Lily suddenly developed a high fever and was rushed to a private hospital in the city.
The moment I heard, I went straight there to take care of her.
Ethan contacted me soon afterward and said we would have to postpone the wedding.
But the next morning, Lily woke up and looked at me innocently.
“My brother is getting married today. Mom and Dad are already there.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
I had not told her the wedding had been postponed, so I teased her.
“Because Lily is sick, and I need to stay here and look after you.”
She did not understand that I was joking. She thought I was upset.
“It’s okay, Natalie.”
“My brother said I can’t go to the wedding, but I can watch it on the tablet.”
She picked up the tablet beside her bed and opened a wedding broadcast link in the family group chat.
The video loaded within seconds.
The groom standing at the front of the ceremony was Ethan.
But the bride beside him was Maya Harrington.
***
The smile froze on my face.
I pulled out my phone and opened the family group chat I had joined.
It was completely silent.
The latest message was still the one Ethan had sent the previous night.
Lily had refused a shot and would not take her medicine.
He had told me to get to the hospital immediately.
I quietly let out a breath.
I had been awake all night, and my exhausted eyes were beginning to blur.
Maybe I had seen the man in the video incorrectly.
Maybe he only looked like Ethan.
Then Lily pushed the tablet toward me.
She pointed at the people on the screen and introduced them one by one.
“That’s my brother.”
“That’s Dad, and that’s Mom.”
Then she pointed at me and herself.
“That’s Natalie.”
“That’s Lily.”
Without thinking, I took the tablet from her.
When I looked at the man on the screen again, the last trace of my smile disappeared.
Ethan had told me that morning that he needed to go to the office.
Yet there he was, wearing the suit I had personally chosen for him.
He stood in the hotel ballroom I had booked, exchanging wedding vows with another woman.
I had planned every detail of that venue.
The flowers, table settings, and ceremony backdrop had all been approved by me, more than once.
But I was not the bride standing beside Ethan.
On the broadcast, Ethan’s mother smiled as she brought his hand and Maya’s together.
“If Ethan ever mistreats you, tell me.”
“I’ll make sure he answers for it.”
Yet only the night before, when I arrived at the hospital to take care of Lily, that same woman had sat beside the bed, held my hand, and cried with gratitude.
“Natalie, having you marry Ethan is the greatest blessing our family could ask for.”
I could no longer tell whether anything she had said to me was true.
The camera slowly moved across the guests.
Finally, it stopped on my friend Chloe Wilson.
She was wearing a bridesmaid’s dress and smiling as she adjusted Maya’s veil.
After college, Chloe had been assigned to work in a remote northern district.
Her requests for a transfer had repeatedly been denied, so she rarely returned to the city.
But after receiving my wedding invitation, she had called me and made a promise.
“We’re best friends.”
“A long flight is nothing.”
“Even if your wedding were in another country, I would still be there.”
But she was not at my wedding.
She was serving as a bridesmaid at Ethan’s wedding to another woman.
I picked up my phone and called her.
She answered quickly.
I forced the tremor out of my voice and asked as casually as I could.
“My wedding has been postponed.”
“Have you landed yet?”
Chloe did not hesitate.
“Ethan told me last night that the wedding was postponed.”
“So I changed my flight to next week.”
I held the phone without speaking.
I did not hang up either.
The other end of the call gradually fell silent.
After several seconds, Chloe finally realized something was wrong.
Her tone became serious.
“Natalie.”
“You already know, don’t you?”
第2章
“Ethan and Maya haven’t had it easy either.”
“They’ve been together for five years, and now they can finally get married.”
“Today is their wedding. Please don’t go there and ruin it.”
They had not had it easy.
As if I had.
I had been with Ethan for seven years.
During that time, I helped him take care of Lily and treated his parents as though they were my own family.
Ethan once told me his supervisor was deliberately holding him back and had rejected several of his promotion applications.
I swallowed my pride and went to my father for help.
In the end, my father used his business connections to arrange a better position for Ethan.
After Chloe was assigned to a remote northern district, she constantly complained about the difficult conditions and the years she was losing there.
To help her secure a transfer, I even reached out to my mother, whom I had barely spoken to in years.
My mother used her professional connections to help Chloe through the most difficult part of the process.
And this was how they repaid me.
Chloe continued trying to persuade me.
“They’re married now.”
“Natalie, let it go.”
“If this becomes public, everyone will see you as a homewrecker chasing a married man.”
“You’ll only humiliate yourself.”
I said nothing.
I ended the call.
After closing the wedding broadcast, I noticed something strange.
The family group Lily had opened was not the one I had joined.
This was the Carter family’s real private chat.
The group I belonged to had only been created to manage what I saw.
Because Lily could not read and relied on voice messages, they had not bothered to create another group that excluded her.
They had discussed every part of their plan openly.
At seven the previous evening, Ethan’s mother had left a voice message.
“I’ll make Lily take a cold bath tonight.”
“She already feels unwell. If her condition gets worse and she develops a fever, Natalie will come to the hospital.”
“The wedding can go ahead as planned.”
“All we have to do is replace Natalie with Maya.”
My fingers slowly tightened around the tablet.
I continued scrolling through the messages.
The previous Saturday, Ethan had arranged to meet Maya.
To keep me from discovering their date, they had instructed Lily to contact me and ask me to take her to the amusement park.
I spent the entire day with her.
That evening, Ethan told me he had been working late at the office.
Every night before bed, Ethan and Maya called each other.
To make sure I would not contact Ethan during those calls, they had Lily keep me occupied with bedtime stories.
Every time Lily completed one of their tasks, they rewarded her with a fruit candy.
She hid the candies under her pillow.
By then, she had filled two entire glass jars.
Whenever I visited the Carter house, Lily secretly took out a few candies and slipped them into my bag.
I used to believe it was her way of showing affection.
Now I understood that every candy represented another time her family had deceived me.
Perhaps Lily noticed the change in my expression.
She suddenly tapped her forehead as though she had remembered something and snatched the tablet from my hands.
“I forgot.”
“My brother said I’m not supposed to let you see this.”
She reached into her pocket, took out a fruit candy, and placed it in my palm.
“Mom gave me this as a reward.”
“I’m giving it to you.”
Lily watched me nervously.
“Natalie, please don’t tell my brother, okay?”
I looked at her anxious face and gently touched her hair.
“Do you want to go see Mom and Dad?”
Her eyes lit up.
“Yes.”
“I want to see the bride too.”
A second later, she lowered her head again.
Her finger traced circles across the tablet screen.
“But Mom said I can’t go anywhere today.”
“I have to stay in the hospital with you.”
“If I’m good, she’ll take me to the amusement park tomorrow.”
My expression did not change, but my voice turned cold.
“I can take you to the amusement park.”
“And if you want to see the bride, I can take you to her too.”
I also wanted to see the wedding for myself.
I wanted to know what they had done to the ceremony I had planned with my own hands.
Less than twenty-four hours had passed since my final inspection of the venue.
The welcome sign outside the ballroom had already been replaced.
My name was gone.
Maya’s stood in its place.
An engagement portrait of Ethan and me had originally been displayed at the entrance.
Now it had been replaced with a photograph of Ethan and Maya.
This wedding had never been a last-minute decision.
They had prepared everything in advance.
I was the only person who had known nothing.
I took Lily’s hand and walked toward the ballroom.
A staff member checking the guest list stopped us.
“I’m sorry, but your names aren’t on the list.”
“Are you guests of the groom or the bride?”
Lily immediately pointed at Ethan’s photograph.
“My brother.”
“He’s my brother.”
The staff member looked confused.
I reached into my bag and removed the original wedding invitation bearing Ethan’s name and mine, along with our completed marriage application.
“Will these explain why I’m here?”
She appeared to assume they were ordinary wedding documents.
But as soon as she opened the folder, an engagement portrait slipped out.
“I almost forgot.”
“My picture with my fiancé was still inside.”
A passing guest kindly picked it up.
The moment she saw the man in the photograph, her eyes widened.
She looked at the portrait and then at the welcome photograph outside the ballroom.
“This man…”
She pointed at Ethan.
“Isn’t he today’s groom?”
第3章
The commotion at the ballroom entrance quickly drew people outside.
The moment Chloe saw me, her face tightened.
She grabbed my arm and tried to drag me away.
“Natalie, what are you doing here?”
“I already told you not to…”
“Who’s here?”
“Why is it so noisy?”
Maya’s voice came from behind her.
The rest of Chloe’s warning died on her lips.
Ethan followed Maya out of the ballroom.
When he saw me, panic flashed across his face.
A second later, he caught Maya by the wrist and pulled her behind him.
The more nervous he appeared, the more curious Maya became.
“Ethan, do you know her?”
“Everyone who came today is a guest.”
“Even if her name isn’t on the list, there’s no need to throw her out.”
“No.”
Ethan denied it without hesitation.
“She’s probably attending another event and came to the wrong ballroom.”
The words had barely left his mouth when Lily squeezed through the crowd.
She looked at Ethan in confusion.
“Why did you say you don’t know us?”
Then she noticed Maya’s wedding dress.
Her eyes lit up, and she pointed excitedly.
“She’s the bride!”
Lily took my hand.
“Natalie, when are you going to marry my brother?”
“I want to see you in a wedding dress too.”
Ethan’s mother hurried over with a dark expression and covered Lily’s mouth.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Maya is the only bride here today.”
The woman who had picked up my engagement portrait happened to be one of Maya’s relatives.
She brought the photograph to her.
“This doesn’t look like a stranger who wandered into the wrong ballroom.”
“She and Ethan even have an engagement portrait together.”
“You should find out what’s happening before someone deceives you.”
Before Ethan could answer, Chloe stepped closer to Maya.
“She’s an old friend of mine.”
“She and Ethan broke up a long time ago, but she has never accepted it.”
“Ethan’s sister is very attached to her, so they were never able to cut off contact completely.”
Chloe turned toward me with a warning in her eyes.
Then she took Maya’s hand.
“I’m sorry, Maya.”
“I should have kept a closer eye on her. I never meant to let her disrupt your wedding.”
I slowly clenched my fists.
But I did not challenge Chloe immediately.
Her lies no longer mattered to me.
I only cared about Ethan’s answer.
Maya held the photograph and studied him suspiciously.
“Is Chloe telling the truth?”
“Is she really only your ex-girlfriend?”
Ethan hesitated for one second.
“Yes.”
He took the engagement portrait from Maya.
In front of everyone, he tore it into pieces.
“That relationship ended a long time ago.”
“There’s no reason to discuss it today.”
The pieces fell across the floor.
We had taken that portrait after setting our wedding date.
In the photograph, Ethan was holding me and promising that he would always take care of me.
Now he refused to admit that he knew me.
Maya finally smiled.
“If Ethan says that’s what happened, I believe him.”
“We’ve already signed and filed our marriage documents.”
“I’m not going to doubt my husband because of an outsider.”
I stood there in shock.
At that moment, I believed that Ethan and Maya were already legally married.
I finally understood that Ethan and I were over.
He had not only held a wedding behind my back.
He had apparently completed a legal marriage with another woman.
Chloe took my arm again and pulled me away from the ballroom.
This time, I did not resist.
When we reached an empty corridor, she released me.
“I told you not to come.”
“Now everyone thinks you’re Ethan’s desperate ex-girlfriend.”
“Are you satisfied?”
“You should be grateful Ethan refused to acknowledge your relationship.”
“Otherwise, everyone in that room would be calling you a homewrecker.”
“You would only have humiliated yourself further.”
I did not look at her.
My phone screen lit up with a new message from Ethan.
Don’t cause any more trouble.
I’ll explain everything when I get back.
